


I'd stop the world if it gave us time

by gingergenower



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: 3x14 A Kiss From A Rose, Canon Compliant, Coda, Feels, Honestly they just love each other, Love, M/M, the softest of boyfriends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-11-25 21:06:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18171470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingergenower/pseuds/gingergenower
Summary: “It’s hardly surprising,” Magnus says, too nonchalant. “It’s a beautiful piece of real estate.”Alec narrows his eyes. “It’s not the real estate Lorenzo wants, Magnus.”





	I'd stop the world if it gave us time

**Author's Note:**

> title taken from the most malec song I've ever been introduced to: [love someone](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws1cGhYPwFE) by lukas graham

When Alec walks into his bedroom, Magnus is unpacking.

He’s summoned half his wardrobe, the closet doubled in size and stuffed full. His books are stacked in a pile next to Alec’s, and Alec closes the bedroom door carefully behind him as he watches Magnus put that near-sacred box carefully in the bedside table, in a drawer Magnus already claimed as his own.

Glancing up and catching sight of Alec, Magnus’ eyes alight with mischief. He straightens, smirking as he gestures to the neat chaos around him. “I decided to start without you.”

“Sorry, I was waylaid. Getting comfortable?”

“Absolutely,” Magnus says with an enthusiasm but disappears the moment he’s said it, softening into sincerity. “Thank you, Alexander. I do appreciate this.”

“Of course,” Alec says quietly, returning his seriousness, and Magnus exhales, looking around.

Moving back to perch on the edge of the window seat, he fidgets with one of his rings. It’s as if seeing the room for the very first time. “I don’t think I’ve ever so much as stayed the night here.”

He hasn’t. In all the times he’s been at the institute, in this room, Alec’s almost sure he’s never even slept in it. There was never any need with the relative privacy and quiet of Magnus’ apartment, and Alec knows Magnus will lock the door with magic to feel secure, but it’s hardly the point. The institute is not filled with loving, kind people the way the loft always was. It’s simply not the same- for Magnus or for Alec.

“I did speak to him. Lorenzo,” Alec adds, at the lack of recognition in Magnus’ eyes. “I tried, but…”

“It didn’t work.”

“No.”

“What did you say?”

“I was going to offer him some made-up award, thanking him for aiding the clave in a time of need by fixing the ley lines,” Alec says, eyebrows raised in irony, “but he wasn’t interested.”

“It’s hardly surprising,” Magnus says, too nonchalant. “It’s a beautiful piece of real estate.”

Alec narrows his eyes. “It’s not the real estate he wants, Magnus.”

A little sceptical, Magnus gestures he elaborate, and Alec walks around the bed to sit opposite Magnus, forearms resting on his thighs as he leans in. He choose his words carefully.

“He wants the life you have.”

Magnus settles into focus, listening intently as Alec continues.

“At least, he thinks he does. He wants your title, your apartment-” me, Alec thinks, but he doesn’t say it out loud “-because he thinks having something makes him worthy of it.”

Magnus watches Alec for a moment, and then drops his gaze back to his agitated hands. “Well, he has it now.”

“No, he doesn’t,” Alec says, lower and harsher than he intends. “And he never will.”

Magnus tilts his head, listening.

“He isn’t loved.”

Saying it out loud doesn’t sound enough, somehow- doesn’t communicate what he means, that his reputation as high warlock was that of being trustworthy, that the apartment was such a symbol of safety to downworlders across the city because Magnus lived there, that Alec gave his heart to Magnus for safekeeping because of who he is, not what he was.

But, Magnus blinks suddenly-brighter eyes, looking away, and he says nothing. It’s enough to know that he did understand, his hands finally still, and Alec waits a few more moments before he stands.

Alec sits this time next to Magnus, turned to him, and he cups Magnus’ cheek, stroking it with light fingertips. His gaze flicks between Magnus’ eyes. “You’re _so_ loved, Magnus.”

Reaching up to hold Alec’s hand in place, Magnus leans into it, looking up at Alec through his eyelashes. “I know.”

After a few minutes, their quiet’s broken by another life-threatening emergency only the head of the institute can possibly manage, but for those few minutes, they hold each other, foreheads resting against each other, and remind themselves of what they’re fighting for.

**Author's Note:**

> feels. feels everywhere.


End file.
